49 



FEBRUARY 28th, 1868. 



Arthur E. Durham, Esq., in the Chair. 



The minutes of the previous meeting were read, and the following donations 

 were announced : — " Land and Water," from the Editor. " Beale's Lectures on 

 the Microscope and its application to Clinical Medicine," from Mr. Wheldon. 

 " Remarks upon the Electric Telegraph" by the Eev. Thos. Fothergill Cooke. 

 •' Proceedings of the Bristol Natural History Society," from the Society. "The 

 First Volume of the Naturalists' Note Book," from the Editor. Pritchard's 

 " Infusoria," from the Rev. B. Compton, M.A. "The Naturalist's Circular," 

 from the Editor. "Science Gossip," from the Publisher. Two engi-aved wood 

 blocks of the enlarged Monogram of the Club, from Mr, Ruffle, and fifty slides 

 from Mr. M. C. Cooke. 



The thanks of the members were voted to the donors. 



In presenting the slides, Mr. M. C. Cooke spoke as follows: — I have one or 

 two observations to make respecting the slides. 36 of them are of hairs, but not 

 bats' hairs this time ; they are for the most part the hairs of Rodents. There 

 is amongst them one of the hair of a jumping rat, a kind of jerboa, which I 

 think the members of the Club will find worth the trouble of looking at. And 

 whilst speaking of hairs, I would observe that there are many more kinds of 

 hairs that are flat than have been hitherto supposed, and I find that in three 

 genera of bats the hairs are decidedly flat. With regard to the hair of the mole, 

 for instance, we hear the alternate diminishing and increasing of the diameter 

 sometimes spoken of, whereas the diminished portions are merely side views of 

 the hair, which is flattened. In the dormouse this is also the case. Another of 

 the slides is of a rather curious object, the resin glands of a species of Euphor- 

 biacese. They are little crimson glands, forming the bases of certain stellate 

 hairs. The resin may be dissolved by spirits of wine, to which it gives a beautiful 

 carmine colour ; but this destroys the glands as microscopical objects. I should 

 also like to mention that I have received from an American correspondent a com- 

 munication respecting a new microscope, which has just been brought out there 

 at the Boston Optical Works. They caU it a Student's Microscope, and a 

 photograph of it which I have here, represents it as something like one of our 

 5 guinea instruments, and its height is given as 15in. ; but then it seems to have 

 rather a higher stand than usual. The mirror can be removed from the stand 

 when required, and used as a reflector to illuminate opaque objects, but the 

 stage appears to have only the finger and thumb motion, which would suit our 

 Continental neighbours. It is described as having coarse and fine adjustments; 

 the coarse adjustment appears to be one tube sliding in another; the fine ad- 

 justment I cannot clearly discover. It is furnished with two objectives, a lin. 

 and a jin. For this, the sum charged is 65 dollars, or about £13 ! But when 

 we consider that they regard this a cheap instrument, and that they hare 

 hitherto been paying as much as £12 10s. for one of our 5 guinea microscopes, 

 we cannot wonder that, as a body, our American friends are doing so little with 

 the microscope, since they have to do it at so great a cost. And whilst I am 

 standing here, may I request the attention of our members to one or two facts 

 respecting the condition of our cabinet? I do not think that the number of 

 slides contributed is anything like what it ought to be ; for, taking out of the 



